


A Helping Hand

by neosaiyanangel



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Battle Trouple, Beaches, Monsters, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22236778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neosaiyanangel/pseuds/neosaiyanangel
Summary: Lightning isn’t used to getting help. She’s independent and powerful all on her own. But when even she fails, it’s good she has loved ones that she can count on.
Relationships: Serah Farron/Lightning/Snow Villiers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Holly Poly 2019





	A Helping Hand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Welsper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsper/gifts).



> I’m not fond of the second and third games in the trilogy. Consider this an alternate future of the first game.

Lightning dodged the strike of a barbed tentacle, ducking behind one of the few jagged rocks that littered the beach. Her bare feet were curled up under her, lines dig into the sand, in preparation for another dodge. A grunt of frustration escaped her lips as she thought on how this situation had happened.

Snow, Serah, and herself had decided to go on a romantic walk on the beach by the newly resettled Oerba. After the emptying of Cocoon, the survivors took advantage of the pre-existing structures and managed to clear the village of Cie'th and the random monsters that had made it their home. They'd cleaned everything up and had even figured out why the beach sand had turned to crystal. Now, the beaches were pure natural sand. Lightning could see now why Vanille and Fang spoke so highly of the beauty of their old home.

It was part of why Lightning, Snow, and Serah had settled there. After all that work restoring it, it was worth it. The fields of flowers were everything the Oerba girls had promised.

Lightning and Snow has agreed to go on this walk with Serah to make a joint wedding proposal. Snow and Serah had decided to end their engagement when Lightning finally couldn't take seeing them together without her and confessed her feelings to them both. Now that they'd shown they worked all together, it was time to restart the engagement with all of them involved.

But the dreamlike walk along the beach had apparently wandered too far off the cleared path. One minute, the three of them had been wandering hand-in-hand-in-hand with Snow and Lightning looking for a picturesque place against the closing sunset to ask Serah to marry them. The next, they all went flying as the sand below them exploded up, sending each of them in different directions.

A _Neochu_. The Neochu from the village had apparently established a new home along the cleaned beach. Lightning has managed to catch its attention away from Snow and Serah, but now she had to deal with it.

Lightning should have been ready. She should've _known_ something would happen. Instead of being ready for a problem, though, she'd been ready for a celebration.

She was wearing a relaxed pair of black pants and a plain bell-sleeved blouse. She's left her footwear at home, expecting to be walking along the soft sand the whole time. While she still had a sword—she always had a sword—it was one of her ornamental swords. Nothing like her Lionheart. The only thing she had was the strength she'd cultivated when she was a l'Cie. Her magic wasn't the strongest, that honor belonging to Hope, but it could still be used in a pinch. This wouldn't be nearly as big of a problem if she still had her connection to Odin.

It would be okay. She just needed to distract the Neochu long enough for Serah and Snow to get away.

The thudding of the Neochu closing in brought her back to reality. There wasn't much she could do now save for face it head-on and hope she was strong enough to handle it.

She was ready for the barbed tentacle that came shooting around the rock. Lightning jumped up on top of the boulder, taking the Neochu by complete surprise. Her sword struck out, managing to catch the creature clean in its right eye.

It shrieked as the blade sliced through the soft flesh. It flailed then, the tentacles flying about without rhyme or reason. To her surprise, her sword was stuck in the hardened woody flesh surrounding the eye. She cursed herself as the few seconds' pause gave the Neochu time to specifically aim at her. Lightning tried dodging to the right into its new blind spot, having to temporarily leave behind her blade, but found herself caught up in the wildly swinging vines.

She was knocked back hard against a flat rock several meters away. Her breath was gone in a solid involuntary huff. Momentarily dazed, she could barely keep her eyes open from the pain as the Neochu managed to refocus its attention on her. It let out an inhuman cry as it stomped swiftly towards her. It shot out its left tentacle. Lightning snapped out of it finally, desperately trying to summon some fire to at least deflect the strike.

Lightning simply wasn't fast enough.

Her arms raised defensively as she abandoned her attempt to mount an instant offensive. Her eyes closed involuntarily in preparation for the strike. She vaguely noted the sound of crunching footsteps in her extreme focus on trying to defend herself.

A moment passed. Nothing happened.

She opened an eye to find herself face-to-face with the barbed flexing end of the Neochu's tentacle. It was clearly trying to reach her, but was failing in its task. It only took a moment to realize why.

Snow had the tentacle in his solid grip. He was looking down at her with his same confident grin as always.

"Don't you worry, Sis. Us heroes are here to save the day!"

"'Us heroes'?" Lightning asked dryly. "Still plenty full of yourself."

"Not just me." Snow let the vine go and reached out his hand to help Lightning up. "Though isn't that why you love me?"

"I—" Lightning cut off her sarcastic reply as she tensed in anticipation. "No time for banter."

"Aw, c'mon. There's _always_ time for banter!" Snow protested as he assumed a defensive stance, facing back towards the Neochu.

"It has my sword," Lightning grumbled.

"Not for long!" a voice cried out from atop the rock behind Lightning. "Elemental Arrow: Fireburst!"

An explosion rocked the right side of the Neochu. As it reeled back, one of its tentacles fell limply to the ground and Lightning's sword shot out away from the monster and somehow managed to land less than a meter from Lightning.

Awed, Lightning looked up to find Serah putting her arms down from shooting the arrow. Her sister looked down at her and gave her a cheeky wink.

"When did you...?" Lightning was well and truly puzzled.

"I was training with NORA to help them out before," Serah explained as she let herself slide down the rock to join her beaus.

"She's a pretty good shot, isn't she?" Snow chortled.

"Why do you even _have_ a bow?" Lightning asked.

"Why do you have a sword?" Serah shot back. Continuing, she stated, "It's still dangerous around here. I didn't want to be helpless like I've been before. And! I was a Pulse l'Cie too! I'm not as powerful as you and Snow, but I can help!"

"Right..." Lightning gave herself a moment to think as she grabbed onto her sword. She could tell just from how it felt that the sword was badly damaged. Shaking her head, she said, "If you stay at a distance peppering this thing with those fire arrows, it should be fine." Flourishing the blade, she struck a pose. "Snow and I can do close-range."

"No doubt!" Snow posed alongside her. "Let's do this!"

The two of them shot forward at the just-recovering Neochu as Serah shot another arrow, this one shining with ice.

Even with her focus on where she would strike, she couldn't help but be amazed by Serah's power. If Serah has been with them for the trek to defeat fate, things would have gone a _lot_ more smoothly.

The arrow struck true, landing inside of the torn-up socket of the Neochu's eye. It let out a whimpering roar as an ice flower burst out from the hole. As it grasped at the frozen wound with its only working vine, the other laying limply against the ground, Lightning and Snow moved in.

As Lightning leapt into the air above the Neochu, Snow ducked down under the monster's jaw and jumped up with force, delivering a vicious uppercut that sent the Neochu flying. That set things up perfectly for Lightning. She was right above the ascending Neochu.

Perfect. They, as normal, read each other like a book.

As the Neochu continued flying up, Lightning used some of her magic to kick off of the air and thrust herself down. Her aim was true; the sword dug itself deeply into the socket. It was nearly to the hilt. Lightning jumped away from the dying Neochu , growling lightly as her sword broke off in a jagged line across the blade. It stumbled backwards away from her. She landed next to Snow, who was flexing his fist in victory.

"That's how the heroes save the day!" He said with a laugh.

"Heroes, huh?" Lightning shook her head. She looked at the Neochu that seemed to finally be collapsing in on itself. She noted, "That should be it."

"Yup!" Serah slid down from the rock she had positioned herself on and ran over to them with a skip in her step. Lightning and Snow turned towards her to bring her into the conversation.

Then Serah's eyes widened.

She was gathering up magic, gaze fearfully focused behind her two lovers. Lightning and Snow both turned to see the Neochu charging suddenly. An apparent last-breath attack.

Lightning braces for impact, throwing up her guard. Snow did the same, adjusting himself so they were helping to brace each other. If they didn't manage to take this attack, then Serah—

"Thundara!" Serah cried out. Bolts of lightning shot down from the skies, focusing completely on the sword that was still jutting out from the Neochu's eye. The shock was solid; Lightning could feel the hairs on her arm stand on end from the blow

The Neochu finally fell with a solid 'thud' a mere handful of feet away from them, its body sliding and shifting in the sand. Snow immediately dropped his guard and rushed up to their girlfriend, picking her up and twirling her about.

"That's the way to show 'em!" Snow crowed. He set Serah back down as they both looked towards Lightning. "You gonna stand over there being all stern, or are you gonna come celebrate with us?”

Lightning mentally sighed contentedly as she gave a half-smile to her significant others. This was her form of perfection. Fighting side-by-side with the people she loved. Savoring the victory afterwards together. It was one of the most satisfying feelings she'd ever had.

Lightning had an odd thought that managed to make her give a chuckle as she joined in the post-battle snuggling.

Maybe she should join NORA too.


End file.
